ABOUT LYNETTE KESSLER
Throughout time dance has played a vital role in society. Dancing re-calibrates our energy and creates connection between the micro and the macro, you and me, Earth and Universe. There is information in the body that can only be accessed through dancing and without it, an essential aspect of our being is undeveloped.
Lynette Kessler
For over 40 years, as dancer, researcher, educator and therapist, Lynette Kessler has worked in somatic movement, choreography, and dance media to communicate the importance of dance.
Synthesizing Continuum Movement® and Pilates with her extensive dance training she has developed a method of movement using gentle, non-stressful ways to heal and optimize the body, mind, spirit connection. This somatic movement approach is an exploration of how we relate to ourselves, our environment, and each other.
Currently Lynette is working on a number of new videos and book ideas and serves a broad international clientele through both online and in-person workshops, trainings, and individual sessions. Her private practice is in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Lynette Kessler 'Place with No Words', Amy Knoles Composer, Douglas Thompson CGI Projections
Lynette began her extensive modern dance and ballet training in 1974. At the same time she began studying yoga and meditation. Lynette is an Authorized Continuum Movement® teacher having worked closely with Emilie Conrad for 25 years. She is a registered Master Somatic Movement Therapist with the International Somatic Movement Education and Therapy Association (ISMETA). She has a MFA in dance from the University of Michigan, and a BFA in dance therapy and dance performance from York University in Toronto.
Lynette studied Pilates with Elizabeth Larkam at the DanceMedicine division of the Center for Sports Medicine at St Francis Hospital in San Francisco and with Jennifer Stacey, M.S. an exercise physiologist and biomechanist and a Pilates second generation teacher’s teacher. In addition to the dance training received during her BFA and MFA programs Lynette also studied modern dance with Margaret Jenkins in San Francisco, at the Merce Cunningham Studio in New York, and at The Place home of the London Contemporary Dance Theater. Ballet was with David Howard in New York, Gay Delange, and Karen Bowles from National Ballet of Canada.
Lynette’s other teachers included Anne Bluethenthal in Alexander Technique; Dr Leslie Gray in Shamanic Counseling; Dance Therapy with Juliana Lau, a former student of Rudolf Laban. Lynette is Certified in Bodynamic Somatic Psychology and Body Mapping Analysis System by Lizbeth Marcher with Anne Isaacs and Joel Isaacs.
Lynette has taught movement meditation at such places as the Deepak Chopra Center, LA Theater Work’s program for incarcerated youth, Bioneers Conference, California Dance Educators Association Conference, and the Child Counseling Center & Play Therapy Institute of New Mexico. She has presented workshops at numerous colleges and conferences throughout the United States, Canada, and UK, and has been a returning guest teacher at UCLA, University of California Irvine, and San Francisco State University.
Lynette offers online programs in somatic movement education and therapy to individuals, groups, and professional development training programs. Lynette works with people of all ages and all fitness levels and abilities. She has worked with clients preparing for and recovering from surgery; rebuilding strength from chronic illness and injury, and enhancing intrinsic awareness through guided movement explorations. Lynette works with health care professionals, including physical and psychotherapists, educators, artists, public speakers, athletes, performers, etc.,
Lynette Kessler has received numerous awards and funding for her creative work including the Lester Horton Furthering the Visibility of Dance Award; an artist residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts; and an Alden B. Dow Creativity Fellowship. Other project support came through various foundations including Annenberg Foundation and Levitt Foundation and from the National Endowment for the Arts, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, and Los Angeles County Arts Commission. She has performed and screened work throughout the U.S., Canada, and the UK, in solo and collaborative group work with artists Amy Knoles, Maggie Payne, Douglas Thompson, Stephen Nachmanovitch, Michael Sterns, Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdottir, and Jilann Spitzmiller.
Lynette began working in dance media producing and directing her first dance film in 1984 in order to reach a wider audience. She continued to advance her aesthetic and technical skill in dance media throughout the 1990’s with the production of several dance films that have been screened on television and at film festivals worldwide.
Reception at the Getty Center featuring the documentary “Carmen and Geoffrey”. Photo with Carmen de Lavallade, Lynette Kessler and guest.
As the founding director of Dance Camera West Lynette Kessler helped advance the nascent art form of dance film through critically curated year round programming including the annual month long Dance Camera West Dance Film Festival. Lynette inspired a new generation of dance film artists as Dance Camera West held a place in the national and international spotlight for dance media during her decade long tenure from 2001 to 2012.
Lynette is an active participant in the local, national and international somatic movement, dance, and dance media communities. She has served on numerous boards, juries and advisory committees and lends mentorship and support to countless dance, somatic movement, and dance media related initiatives.
More detailed background information about Lynette Kessler can be found in extended bios and curriculum vitae.